Assessment of genetic diversity of a representative sample of finger millet (Eleusine coracana (L.) Gaertn.) collected from four different districts of Sri Lanka using SSR markers

Genetic diversity of twenty finger millet germplasm accessions collected from four different districts of Sri Lanka and ex-situ conserved at Plant Genetic Resource Center, Gannoruwa was assessed using ten SSR markers. DNA was extracted from ten days old immature leaves of each finger millet accession and screened for the ten SSR markers. The PCR products were separated on 6% polyacrylamide gels and visualized by silver staining. The SSR data was analyzed using Power Marker v 3.0. The mean major allele frequency was 0.79 and average PIC value was 0.26 per marker. The number of scorable alleles produced per marker ranged from 1 to 6 with an average of 2.60. Frequency based shared allele distance matrix exhibited genetic distances among finger millet germplasm accessions and these distances varied from 0.06 to 0.70. Dendrogram constructed on the basis of SSR polymorphism revealed the pattern of genetic relatedness among the twenty finger millet germplasm accessions. The revealed genetic relationships can be used in finger millet germplasm conservation and utilization programs effectively.